George Ivy's charming old house in Eastover was once a jail

EASTOVER -- George Ivy spotted the home in a brochure of real estate listings. It didn't meet any of the criteria he was looking for - three bedrooms, a two-car garage and an acre.

But there was something about the house. Ivy liked the idea of living in an old country home where neighbors looked out for one another.

He decided he had to see the home for himself.

Ivy contacted his real estate agent and asked how much she knew about the quaint house in Eastover. He wanted to visit the home as soon as possible.

It wasn't until after his initial walk-through that he learned the home once served as the Fayetteville jail in the 1800s. There were very few remnants of the old jail - just two old doors with wood pegs and door knobs.

"We sat on the back porch and wrote the offer that quick," he recalled. "My friends thought I was out of my mind. They said I was crazy."

No one had lived in the house on Coleman Road for more than 20 years when Ivy purchased it in 1994. It was used mostly for church socials and pig pickings, he said. The home was filled with antiques, including an old pump organ.

But the old home had a good vibe and a personality. He had to buy it.

"My city home was contemporary and new. It did not have any character, other than what I gave it. It didn't have the feel," he said. "You know when you walk into some houses and some of them are not alive. They don't speak to you. Then you walk into some old houses and you get a sense that you are supposed to be here. That is what it was like."

The home's history is deep, and Coleman Road isn't the house's original location.

Ivy purchased the home from Don Beard, a former state legislator and county commissioner. Beard had bought the old Fayetteville jail in 1959. He used the building as his insurance office on Grove Street, where Biscuit Kitchen now stands, before it was relocated to Eastover.

Beard had researched the structure and learned that the old Fayetteville jail, also called the Jailer's House, was built around 1821.

Ivy pulled out old documents tracing the history of the home on his kitchen table. Among them were a floor plan of the jail, an old Fayetteville map and an article written in the late 1960s about the Jailer's House.

The county's courthouse was in James Square, not far from the jail, in the center of Rowan, Grove, Ramsey and Green streets, Ivy said.

The old jail included a front hall and two 18-by-18-foot cells - one for felons and one for debtors. The jailer and his family lived upstairs. In front of the jail was a pillory and stock. The wooden pillory and stock were used as public humiliation for punishment.

"They put you out there for public display if you were bad," Ivy said.

Today, the front hall is Ivy's living room and master bedroom. His kitchen and guest bedroom occupy the area that once held the jail cells.

The wood floors, he said, came from an old home in Bladenboro years before he bought the house.

The upstairs living quarters for the jailer were turned into an attic and a sleeping loft by the previous owner.

"I worked on this place for six months before I moved," Ivy said. "Everything has to be custom-fit to the house."

The hearth was reconstructed after the home was moved from its location on Grove Street. The fireplace also was rebuilt. The old bricks from the fireplace were used to make a sidewalk in front of the home.

The renovations are continuing. Ivy has gutted the master bathroom. He plans to add sliding doors, a new toilet, bathtub and a sink.

"There is a lot of history and a lot of work in this house," he said.

There also is the presence of benevolent spirits, Ivy added. When the house is quiet, he said he can sense and hear them.

"You hear things that go bump in the night, but you get used to it," he said.

Ivy was told by a someone who channels spirits that the spirits are there to protect the old house.

Ivy has no plans to place the home on a historic registry, but he will maintain its character as long as he can.

"I have every intention of keeping the major footprint of the outside of the home," he said. "I feel like I am morally obligated to keep it up and to improve it. Whoever gets it next, they can take over where I left off."

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